Sakevisual

Last updated
Sakevisual
Industry visual novels
Founded2010
Founder Ayu Sakata
Headquarters United States
Website www.sakevisual.com

Sakevisual (stylized as sakevisual) is a developer and publisher of interactive story games such as visual novels and otome games, well known for their otome game RE: Alistair++. Their games are for Windows, macOS and Linux. Sakevisual is a partner of Hanako Games, Winter Wolves and Tycoon Games.

Contents

History

Sakevisual was founded by Ayu Sakata. [1] On July 28, 2009, The Cute, Light and Fluffy Project was released, an anthology of short stories made by different people; Ayu Sakata's short story in this is called Cuter Than Fiction. Their first release was the freeware otome game, RE: Alistair. On April 10, 2010, they released an updated version with more scenes and additional content called RE: Alistair++. [2] Sakevisual continues to release free games, but in 2010, they introduced the Green Tea Line, a series of commercial games. Ayu Sakata also wrote the stories for The Flower Shop and The Flower Shop: Winter in Fairbrook, visual novels by Winter Wolves. [3] The Flower Shop was released on January 28, 2010, the sequel The Flower Shop: Winter in Fairbrook was released on December 8, 2011. They won the award for the "Best Fanbase" in 2011 by IndieDB.

Jisei and Kansei are the first two entries in the Green Tea Line and the first two installments of the Jisei Murder Mystery Series. Jisei and Kansei both received positive feedback in regards to its visual aspects, although reviewers agreed that the actual mysteries in the games needed work. [4] [5] [6] The third installment Yousei was released on February 1, 2013. There are currently five installments planned.

Sakevisual plans to release more free games in the future; Oneiro a mystery otome game, Hanami X2 another otome game which is set in the Heian period and Every Sunrise the sequel to Ripples. Furthermore, they announced another untitled project that will be part of the Green Tea Line and therefore commercial and a new free game, Swan's Melody, with an unknown release date. [7]

In 2013, they announced that besides Yousei they would like to release two free games and one commercial game this year. The also announced that the new game in the Green Tea Line is called Backstage Pass and is set in the same universe as RE: Alistair. It was released in August 2016.

Games

Free Games

NameYearLanguage(s)PlatformsDescription
Ripples2008 English, French, German, Russian, Slovak, Turkish Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, Windows A visual novel in which an idealistic Kuu meets nihilistic Koda in a park. [8]
[text] - A Summer Story2009English, French, German, RussianLinux, macOS, Windows[text] is a free sound novel. A young girl named Maya finds a new friend while she is on vacation. Her uncle gave his mobile phone to a boy and so Maya texts with him.
RE: Alistair2010 Chinese English, German, Portuguese, Russian, SpanishLinux, macOS, WindowsMerui Lucas, a highschool girl, is playing an online game when a rare item is stolen from her within the game. She discovers that the culprit is one of three male students attending her high school. When the thief discovers her identity, he taunts her, leading to her making a bet with him. If Merui can discover his identity within thirty days, he will return her stolen game item. [9]
My Magical Cosplay Cafe2011English, German, RussianLinux, macOS, WindowsTakeshi is the chef at the Magical Cosplay Cafe. Every day, he gets to be around girls who work at the cafe with him and he wants to find a girlfriend. The game was intended to be a joke for April Fool's.

Green Tea Line

Jisei Murder Mystery Series

NameYearLanguage(s)PlatformsDescription
Jisei2010English, French, German, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish Android, Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, Windows, Xbox One A young teenager with no name and no home has the unique ability to relive the death of any corpse that he touches. When he stumbles upon a dead woman, he's immediately branded as the primary suspect in a murder investigation. [10]
Kansei2011English, French, German, Japanese, Russian, SpanishAndroid, Linux, macOS, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, Xbox Series The story follows the journey of a teenager with the ability to relive the death of any corpse he touches. He finds himself tangled in another murder case when the owner of a high profile corporation dies under mysterious circumstances. This time, however, he's forced to team up with a group of kids with abilities as strange as his own. [11]
Yousei2013English, RussianLinux, macOS, WindowsKangai and his group are sent undercover to a local university where they must dig up the remains of a top secret experiment. Upon arrival, they discover the project lead missing, and an old acquaintance racing them for the same information.
Shinsei2022EnglishLinux, macOS, Windows

Other Games

NameYearLanguage(s)PlatformsDescription
Backstage Pass2016Chinese, English, RussianLinux, macOS, WindowsAn otome game about show business. The four main love interests are a musician/singer, an actor, a model, and a magician. The gameplay is similar to RE: Alistair, although it covers a year's worth of time instead of just a month.

Other Games

NameYearLanguage(s)PlatformsDescription
The Cute, Light and Fluffy Project2009English, Russian, GermanLinux, macOS, WindowsAn anthology of four short stories. Ayu Sakata's short story in this is Cuter Than Fiction.
The Flower Shop: Summer in Fairbrook 2010EnglishiOS, Linux, macOS, WindowsA visual novel by Winter Wolves . Ayu Sakata wrote the story for the game.
The Flower Shop: Winter in Fairbrook 2011EnglishLinux, macOS, WindowsAnother visual novel by Winter Wolves and the sequel to The Flower Shop. Ayu Sakata wrote the story for this game, too.
Cinders 2012EnglishmacOS, WindowsA visual novel adaption of the Cinderella story by MoaCube. [12]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Yousei Teikoku</span> Japanese band

Yousei Teikoku is a Japanese rock band formed in 1997. Their music mixes elements of gothic metal, heavy metal, electronic and classical music. Their works include the opening tracks of several anime series, including Future Diary, Magical Pokan, Innocent Venus, Kurokami: The Animation, The Qwaser of Stigmata, Big Order, and the Tokyo ESP soundtrack. After releasing several independent albums, the band released seven major-label albums with their current label Lantis: Gothic Lolita Propaganda, Metanoia, Gothic Lolita Doctrine, Gothic Lolita Agitator, Pax Vesania, Shadow Corps(e) and The Age Of Villains.

The operating system Linux can be used for playing video games. Because many games are not natively supported for the Linux kernel, various software has been made to run Windows games, such as Wine, Cedega, and Proton, and managers such as Lutris and PlayOnLinux. The Linux gaming community has a presence on the internet with users who attempt to run games that are normally not supported on Linux.

An otomegame is a story-based video game that is targeted towards women. Generally one of the goals, besides the main story goal, is to develop a romantic relationship between the female main player character and one of the usually male, secondary lead characters.

QuinRose is a Japanese games developer specialising in otome games for Windows and consoles such as the PlayStation Portable. The company also produces drama CDs, manga, light novels, and other merchandise based on their games.

Celso Riva is an Italian independent video game designer of several critically acclaimed games, including The Goalkeeper, Universal Boxing Manager, Magic Stones, the Heileen and Vera Blanc series, Bionic Heart, and the Loren the Amazon Princess.

<i>Koihime Musō</i> Japanese video game, manga and anime series

Koihime Musō: Doki Otome Darake no Sangokushi Engi is a series of Japanese adult visual novels and strategy video games primarily developed and published by BaseSon for the Windows and is based on the classic 14th century Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong. The first game was developed by BaseSon, and was first released on January 26, 2007, for Windows as two DVD-ROMs, followed by a re-release on April 11, 2008, containing an extra CD-ROM.

Heileen is a visual novel video game series developed and published by the Italian studio Tycoon Games for the Android, Linux, MacOS, and Microsoft Windows. The first game Heileen: Sail Away was released in 2008 and the sequel Heileen 2: The Hands of Fate in 2009. The final installment Heileen 3: New Horizons was released on December 17, 2012. A free online prequel with the title Heileen: A Trip to Bavaria was released in 2009.

Apphia Yu, also known as Ayu Sakata, is an American voice actress. She has worked on games such as Loren The Amazon Princess and Tales of Aravorn: Seasons of the Wolf, and on anime like Assassination Classroom. She is the founder of sakevisual, a company based in Dallas, Texas that makes original visual novel games. She is married to voice actor Micah Solusod.

<i>Planet Stronghold</i> 2011 video game

Planet Stronghold is a visual novel, sci-fi role-playing video game with a turn-based combat system, developed and published by Italian studio Winter Wolves on February 28, 2011 for the Android, iOS, Linux, macOS, and Microsoft Windows platforms.

The Flower Shop is a visual novel series by Winter Wolves. The first game The Flower Shop - Summer In Fairbrook was released on February 1, 2010, while the sequel The Flower Shop - Winter in Fairbrook was released on December 8, 2011. The games are for the Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X and Linux platforms. Both games were also released for Android and iOS.

<i>Loren the Amazon Princess</i> 2012 video game

Loren The Amazon Princess is a Fantasy RPG visual novel by Italian independent studio Winter Wolves. The game was released on April 30, 2012. The game works for the Android, iOS, Linux, Mac OS, Microsoft Windows platforms. The expansion The Castle Of N'mar was released on September 28, 2012. A spin-off titled Tales of Aravorn: Seasons of the Wolf was released on November 15, 2014

<i>Vera Blanc</i> 2010 video game

Vera Blanc is an Italian mystery visual novel video game series for the Android, iOS, Linux, Mac OS, and Microsoft Windows platforms, with art in the comic style. The games were developed and published by Winter Wolves. The first game Vera Blanc: Full Moon was released on June 30, 2010 and the sequel Vera Blanc: Ghost In The Castle on September 1, 2010. There are currently no plans for another sequel of the series.

<i>The Royal Trap</i> 2013 video game

The Royal Trap is a visual novel developed and published by Hanako Games on February 23, 2013, for Windows, Mac OS and Linux. The story of the game follows a young companion who has to take care of her prince, Oscar. The game uses anime-style graphics and is written in English. On June 15, 2013, the DVD version of The Royal Trap was released, which also contains a HD version of the game, as well as exclusive concept sketches. It was re-released in April 2015 for Steam with new background art, a higher resolution, and some expanded content. The Steam release also added a subtitle, "The Confines of the Crown"; in 2017, the game on Steam was changed to be advertised as only The Confines of the Crown without "The Royal Trap."

<i>Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star</i> 2011 video game

Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star, is a visual novel released in Japan on 29 December 2011, with an official English patch being released a year later on Christmas Day. The game is an episodic followup to Hatoful Boyfriend set around the holiday season and takes place in a separate universe from the first game, in which the events of Bad Boys Love do not occur. The sequel, developed largely alongside the first game, makes reference to and explores several unresolved plot elements brought up in the first game's Bad Boys Love scenario that could not be fully addressed in its main narrative. Unlike the first game, Holiday Star is a mostly linear visual novel rather than an otome game, with more standalone scenarios and fewer branching plotlines. On 4 June 2015, it was announced that Mediatonic, the developer responsible for the 2014 remake of the original game, was also developing a remake of Holiday Star, again to be published by Devolver Digital. On 8 December 2015, it was announced that the remake of Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star would be released on 15 December 2015 for Microsoft Windows, OS X and Linux, and on 22 December 2015 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita.

<i>Famicom Detective Club</i> Adventure game duology

Famicom Detective Club is an adventure game duology developed and published by Nintendo for the Family Computer Disk System. The first entry, The Missing Heir, was released in 1988, followed by a prequel released the next year titled The Girl Who Stands Behind. In both games, the player takes on the role of a young man solving murder mysteries in the Japanese countryside.

<i>Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly</i> and <i>the Ashen Hawk</i> 2015 video game

Psychedelica of the Black Butterfly and Psychedelica of the Ashen Hawk are two otome visual novel video games developed by Otomate. They were published for PlayStation Vita by Idea Factory in Japan in 2015 and 2016, and by Aksys Games in North America and Europe in 2018. Intragames and Idea Factory released Black Butterfly for Microsoft Windows in 2018, and Ashen Hawk in 2019.

<i>Touhou Spell Bubble</i> 2020 video game

Touhou Spell Bubble is a rhythm based competitive arcade puzzle game developed in 2020 by Taito as an officially licensed spin-off in the Touhou Project series. The gameplay is similar to that of the Puzzle Bobble series, which Taito also developed. The company has referred to the game as "Puzzle Bobble meets Touhou Project," implying that they consider it to also be a spinoff of both series.

<i>30XX</i> 2023 video game

30XX is a rogue-lite platform game from independent developer Batterystaple Games and the sequel to 20XX. It was released on Microsoft Windows via Steam early access on February 17, 2021, and in full on August 9, 2023. A Nintendo Switch release was planned on the same day, but was delayed to September 1. Like its predecessor, 30XX was inspired by the Mega Man series, but uses procedurally generated levels. However, unlike 20XX, the game possesses both a permadeath roguelike mode and a "Mega Mode" where the levels of the entire game are generated in advance and do not change upon death, giving players an experience more similar to the Mega Man games. The game follows the android main characters of 20XX, Nina and Ace, who awaken after a millennium to discover the world has changed irreversibly after the advent of the Synthetic Mind. The early access release of the game was positively received by critics, who called it an improvement over its predecessor.

<i>Jack Jeanne</i> 2021 video game

Jack Jeanne (ジャックジャンヌ) is an otome visual novel with dating sim and rhythm game elements.

References

  1. H., Stephanie (2011-01-20). "Interview with sakevisual founder Ayu Sakata". Inside AX. Archived from the original on 2011-07-29. Retrieved 2011-08-28.
  2. Lada, Jenni (2010-04-13). "RE: Alistair becomes RE: Alistair++". GamerTell. Retrieved 2011-08-28.
  3. Sakata, Ayu (2010-01-30). "The Making of The Flower Shop - Writing". sakevisual. Retrieved 2011-09-02.
  4. Zoth, Thomas (2010-06-09). "Jisei Visual Novel Game Review". Mania. Archived from the original on 2011-09-28. Retrieved 2011-08-28.
  5. Lada, Jenni (2010-06-22). "Gamertell Review: Jisei for PC, Mac and Linux". GamerTell. Retrieved 2011-08-28.
  6. Lada, Jenni (2011-06-20). "Review: Kansei for Windows, Mac, Linux". GamerTell. Retrieved 2011-08-28.
  7. Sakata, Ayu (2010-04-01). "A Real Announcement" . Retrieved 2012-06-07.
  8. Young, Jason (2011-01-21). "7 Essential iPhone Apps for Anime Lovers". Inside AX. Archived from the original on 2011-09-03. Retrieved 2011-09-02.
  9. Rose, Mike (2010-07-16). "RE:Alistair++ Review". Gamezebo. Archived from the original on 2011-07-23. Retrieved 2011-09-02.
  10. Sakata, Ayu. "Jisei Official Website". sakevisual. Retrieved 2011-09-29.
  11. Sakata, Ayu. "Kansei Official Website". sakevisual. Retrieved 2011-09-29.
  12. "MoaCube Official Website" . Retrieved 2012-01-06.